New Delhi: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi gets ready to embark on his trip to Assam Friday, which includes a night halt, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s big worry is the prospect of protests and adverse public reactions over the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill greeting him.
The party is concerned to the extent that it has carefully chalked out the prime minister’s visit to avoid any uncomfortable situations.
Modi is scheduled to land in Guwahati Friday evening, straight from West Bengal after his rally at Mainaguri in Jalpaiguri district. On Saturday, the PM will lay the foundation stone for the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Amingaon in north Guwahati, before addressing a public meeting there. He will then head to the Guwahati airport to take off for Agartala in Tripura for the next set of programmes.
Highly placed sources in the party said the widespread, impassioned and even violent protests against the Citizenship Bill — which the BJP is pushing for and which was passed by Lok Sabha in January — are “causing great concern to the party given the PM’s impending visit and the schedule has been drawn up with great caution”.
BJP feels the optics of the prime minister being greeted with protests and an angry voter can be damaging in a state where it managed to win for the first time in 2016, and where it hopes to make gains in the Lok Sabha polls.
Preventive measures
Sources in the party said a big section of the local unit of Assam was pushing for a PM rally in Morigaon that neighbours the Nagaon district and is a couple of hours away from Guwahati. Morigaon falls within the Nagaon Lok Sabha constituency represented by BJP’s Rajen Gohain.
However, after much deliberation, it was decided to hold the rally in Amingaon itself, due to multiple reasons, sources add.
“We had to be very careful about the schedule to avoid any uncomfortable situation and all choices have been made accordingly,” said a source in the party who did not wish to be identified.
Given Morigaon has a sizeable immigrant population, the authorities felt it would be “a far more sensitive area” to host the rally. It was also felt Modi’s geographical movement and travel time in the state should be as restricted as possible.
“The PM was anyway going to Amingaon to lay the foundation stone, so it made sense to just hold the rally there instead of risking further travel. This is close to the airport also so that helps more logistically,” said a highly placed source in the state administration who also wished to remain anonymous.
Moreover, senior BJP minister and its chief strategist in the region Himanta Biswa Sarma wields influence over this area, which falls in his constituency Jalukbari and from where he has been elected four times now.
Sources said it was Sarma who pushed for an AIIMS in Amingaon over the other contender, Raha in Nagaon district.
“The bill has become a highly emotive issue in Assam. A rally by the PM anywhere would be a problem, but Morigaon is extremely sensitive,” said a local BJP leader in Assam on condition of anonymity.
“It made sense to hold the rally in a place in Guwahati itself so it would be easier to manage. Also, Amingaon is Himanta Biswa Sarma’s territory, so he will be able to manage,” the leader added.
The state administration has further strengthened security and beefed up the deployment of police force in view of the heightened security concerns.
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The backlash
Assam, and much of the Northeast, has been on the boil over the contentious bill that seeks to give citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The bill has come in the backdrop of the process of updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam with the aim of identifying illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.
It is being seen as an effort by the BJP to further its Hindu majoritarian politics. The people of the state as well as major political players feel it goes against the provisions of the 1985 Assam Accord as well as the sentiments of the indigenous Assamese people who have been opposed to all immigrants, irrespective of religion.
The ethnic Assamese has long felt that immigrants — both Hindu and Muslim — have been eating into their limited resources and rights and that by bringing this bill, a large section of illegal immigrants will be made legal and their claims on the state’s resources will be legitimised.
Protests, dharnas and violent outrage over the bill have dominated much of the picture in the state, as well as the entire region.
The BJP’s ally in the state, Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), also parted ways in protest. Assembly speaker and BJP leader Hitendra Nath Goswami had also publicly said the bill was being brought in “haste” and without “taking the indigenous people of Assam into confidence.”
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Sounds like Sarma is his goonda in the area. “It is his territory, so he can manage” it seems. Wtf. Let’s boot out this guru chela and restore some semblance of normalcy.
As seems to be happening with the Ram Mandir issue, a tactical retreat on the CAB would be a good idea.